By Victoria Ojeme

Director General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Sir Joseph Ari, on Thursday seek for the inclusion of skills acquisition programmes in the Nigerian primary and secondary education system in the country.

Sir Ari, stated that unemployment is on the rise in Nigeria, adding that, “white collar jobs are in short supply or not even available.

He said, “Every year, universities and other high Institutions turn in graduates thousands and there are no jobs for them, it is a time bomb.

“We have said this over and over again, when you want the young population to embrace skills as a profitable endeavour, you catch them young by introducing skills training to them right from a tender age.”

Ari called on the media to help in sensitisation of the need to include skills acquisition programmes in the Nigerian O-level education system. “We need to change the narrative in our educational school curriculum for our young people to embrace skills acquisition” stating that having a skilled workforce is paramount in the task of reducing unemployment in the country.

Also speaking, the Director General of the National Employment Consultative Association (NECA), Mr Wale-Smatt Oyerinde, acknowledged that a skilled workforce drives the economy of developed nations.

He said it was important that ITF and NECA work collaboratively to expand industrial training programmes for the benefit of Nigerians.

“Our country is faced with huge challenges and we need to join hands together to tackle them.

We have an unemployment rate of about 33 per cent and when you add the under-employment rate which is about 20 per cent, then we know that it has become imperative to deepen our collaboration, particularly in the area of the TSDP programme,” he stated.